Natural remedies for helping fertility problems

Find the cure for infertility inside your kitchen. Some spices and herbs right from your kitchen closet can help you overcome fertility issues without any side effects. Here are some natural practices that can help you cure your problems. 1. Ashwagandha - This commonly found Indian herb, also popularly known in English as Winter Cherry or Indian ginseng has excellent properties that can cure infertility in both men and women. It helps in normalizing the endocrine system and also boosts its functioning, apart from improving the immunity of the body. 2. Raspberry leaves - This is beneficial for women facing fertility problems, as raspberry leaves encourage the normal growth of the embryo. These can also bring disturbed hormones back to normal. 3. Stinging nettle - Known to cure uterine malfunctions and improve fertility, this strange but beautiful herb is great when you're trying to conceive. It helps retain the embryo inside the womb, thus preventing miscarriages. Stinging nettle can only be consumed in the form of tea and so it is advised that women looking to conceive should drink 2-3 cups of tea everyday. Article: 31st March 2014 www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com Read more about Natural Fertility at www.prideangel.com

Does not getting enough sleep reduce your fertility?

Infertility is a disturbing problem that may leave your with sleepless nights. But, does sleep deprivation affect fertility? Of course Yes! You are making your condition even worse without a sound sleep. Getting enough sleep has great role in your health and beauty. Sleep is usually a factor that is generally overlooked while considering methods to improve fertility. So, if you are trying to improve your fertility, no matter through natural methods or artificial treatments, include a good sleep also in your regimen. FRUITS FOR IMPOTENCE Being relaxed is the best thing that you can do to make your hormones work in balance. Moreover, body needs proper rest to make its organs function to its fullest, including the reproductive system. Stress is always a bad companion for hormones. This will affect your overall fertility to a great extend. Sleep deprivation in women may affect ovulation, whereas in men, it will cause decreased sperm count. If you wonder does sleep deprivation affect fertility, here we may discuss some explanations that may clear your doubt. Irregular menstruation: Irregular menstrual cycle is the most evident and common symptom of sleep deprivation. If you want to know how does sleep deprivation affects your fertility, watch your menstrual cycle. Get enough sleep and you will notice the changes without even trying any medications. Interruption of Leptin Production: How does sleep deprivation affect ovulation is a common question among women. One of the major reasons for this is the effect on the leptin hormone, which plays an important role in proper ovulation in women. Sleep deprivation causes interruption in leptin production, which will cause irregular periods and infertility. Weight Gain: It is a clear fact that obesity is one of the major reasons for infertility among both men and women. Sleep deprivation will have a direct impact on your metabolism, which will result in obesity and eventually infertility. Those women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) must take more care on this matter. Disturbed circadian rhythm: Circadian rhythm controls the hormone balance of your body depending on the dark light cycle. Any disturbance in the sleeping pattern will affect the circadian rhythm, thereby breaking the hormone balance. Chronic Stress: Stress will cause sleep deprivation and sleep deprivation will result in further more stress. It is important to keep a balance between your mind and body for the proper functioning of the system. Sleep will keep you relaxed and will allow your hormones to do its work efficiently. Decreased testosterone: Does sleep deprivation affect fertility is a common doubt among men as well. It has been shown in many studies that lack of sleep will affect the functioning of your endocrine system, thereby keeping your fertility under risk. Decreased sperm count: Disturbed circadian rhythm will affect your body in many ways. While considering infertility, decreased sperm count is considered as a major problem. If you wonder does sleep deprivation affect fertility, the answer is unfortunately, yes. Article: 29th March 2014 www.boldsky.com

Women trying to get pregnant should reduce their stress levels

Women trying to get pregnant are often told, "You just to need relax and it'll happen on its own." And indeed, many of us have heard stories of couples who became pregnant as soon as they stopped "trying." Now, a new study suggests there might be something to that "just relax" advice, finding women with high levels of a key stress biomarker are more likely to suffer from infertility. The study looked at 501 healthy U.S. women between the ages of 18 and 40 who had just started trying to conceive; it followed them for 12 months or until they became pregnant. The researchers from Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center tested the women's saliva and recorded their levels of cortisol, a hormone that's a well-known indicator of stress. They also measured their levels of alpha-amylase, a digestive enzyme also linked to stress. The women did one saliva test when they enrolled in the study and another after the start of their first menstrual cycle. The researchers found that cortisol levels were not linked to the women's likelihood of pregnancy. But women with the highest levels of alpha-amylase were 29 per cent less likely to get pregnant each month compared to women with low levels of this protein enzyme. They were also more than twice as likely to meet the definition of infertility, meaning no pregnancies despite 12 months of regular unprotected intercourse. The full results appear online in the journal Human Reproduction. The researchers, led by Dr. Courtney Denning-Johnson Lynch, director of reproductive epidemiology at the medical centre, say this study corroborates an earlier study they did in the U.K. linking high levels of alpha-amylase to a reduced likelihood of pregnancy. "For the first time, we've shown that this effect is potentially clinically meaningful, as it's associated with a greater than two-fold increased risk of infertility among these women," Lynch said in a statement. The researchers say their findings should encourage women who are having difficulty conceiving to consider stress-reduction techniques such as yoga, meditation and mindfulness. However, Lynch notes that stress is not the only factor involved in a woman's ability to become pregnant, nor is it likely the most important factor. For that reason, she said couples should not jump to blame themselves or their lifestyles if they are experiencing fertility problems. Roughly 16 per cent or 1 in 6 couples in Canada experience infertility. This number has doubled since the 1980s. Around 30 per cent of cases are related to the men, who may have issues with their sperm; 40 per cent are related to the women; and 10 to 20 per cent are related to both, or the cause is unknown. A women's age is a key factor in her ability to conceive, as fertility decreases with age, particularly after 35. Article: 24th March www.ctvnews.ca Read more about boosting your fertility at www.prideangel.com

Chemicals in plastics may be a threat to male fertility

To study the impact of everyday chemicals on fertility, federal researchers recently spent four years tracking 501 couples as they tried to have children. One of the findings stood out: while both men and women were exposed to known toxic chemicals, men seemed much more likely to suffer fertility problems as a result. The gender gap was particularly wide when it came to phthalates, those ubiquitous compounds used to make plastics more flexible and cosmetic lotions slide on more smoothly. Women who wore cosmetics often had higher levels of phthalates in their bodies, as measured by urinalysis. But only in their male partners were phthalate levels correlated with infertility. “It’s the males in the study that are driving the effect,” said Germaine Buck Louis, an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and lead author of the report, published in February in Fertility and Sterility. “They’re the signal.” Phthalates belong to a group of industrial compounds known as endocrine disruptors because they interfere with the endocrine system, which governs the production and distribution of hormones in the body. The chemicals have been implicated in a range of health problems, including birth defects, cancers and diabetes. But it is their effect on the human reproductive system that has most worried researchers. A growing body of work over the last two decades suggests that phthalates can rewire the male reproductive system, interfering with the operation of androgenic hormones, such as testosterone, that play key roles in male development. That mechanism, some experts believe, explains findings that link phthalate exposure to changes in everything from testicular development to sperm quality. “I wasn’t surprised at all by this finding,” Andrea Gore, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Texas, and editor in chief of the journal Endocrinology, said of the new report. “We see the cell studies, the animal studies and now the human epidemiology work, and they are all showing us a similar picture.” The focus on male fertility dates back to the early 1990s, when researchers in the United States and Europe published a paper suggesting chemical exposures could be linked to a steady decline in semen quality. One of the authors, Niels Skakkebaek, a reproduction researcher at the University of Copenhagen, has since suggested that an increase in malformations in male reproductive systems, which he calls “testicular dysgenesis syndrome,” may be linked to environmental exposure to compounds including endocrine disruptors like phthalates. More recent studies in the United States have also suggested links between phthalate exposure and apparent sperm damage in men. The findings are supported by a host of animal studies, particularly in rats, which have shown that the compounds can interfere with masculinization of young animals and result in odd physical changes to male reproductive tracts. “They interfere with how testosterone is made,” explained Heather Patisaul, a biology professor at North Carolina State University who is studying the effect of endocrine-disrupting compounds during puberty. “Anything you can think of that’s testosterone-dependent is likely to be affected.” Women also have androgenic hormones, but to a lesser degree, and according to some theories this accounts for the smaller but still observable effects of phthalates on female fertility. (Testosterone, for instance, is part of the cascade of hormones that leads to egg production.) There are plenty of uncertainties in this picture. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that while studies suggest that phthalate exposure is “widespread in the U.S. population,” it’s difficult to know what those levels are. Health effects from very low levels are still not well understood. While the “evidence for an effect on male fertility is compelling,” said Tracey Woodruff, director of the program on reproductive health and the environment at the University of California, San Francisco, it’s still difficult to gauge the impact. “We are still pulling the tricky aspects together.” There are different kinds of phthalates complicating the picture; some seem to have a much larger effect than others. And these are far from the only factors, chemical and otherwise, that influence human fertility. Dr. Buck Louis’s group is looking at a broad range of industrial compounds, including heavy metals like lead and cadmium, that tend to accumulate in the body. Phthalates, by contrast, tend to be metabolized within a few hours. Their impact would not be so profound if it were not that people are constantly exposed from multiple sources. These include not only cosmetics and plastics, but also packaging, textiles, detergents and other household products. Phthalates are found in the tubing used in hospitals to deliver medications; enteric coatings on pills, including some aspirin; materials used to create time-release capsules; and countless other products. In 2008, the government banned them in children’s toys, and the European Union is also moving forward on restrictions. “The W.H.O. called them ‘pseudopersistent’ in one report,” Dr. Woodruff said, because continued exposure keeps phthalates in the body. But here’s the silver lining: the transient nature of these compounds also means that consumers can take fairly simple measures to reduce their phthalate levels. One is to read the labels on cosmetics and other personal care products and to choose those without phthalates. Another is to be cautious with plastic food containers, and to avoid using them to heat food and drink, as the phthalates in them may get transferred to what you consume. “These compounds leach from plastics,” Dr. Buck Louis said. “You can switch to glass for drinking. You can cook your frozen dinners on paper plates.” Studies have shown that these kinds of actions do make a difference; experiments have found measurably lower levels within several days in people who make these changes. “Lifestyle has an important place here,” said Dr. Buck Louis. Article: 21st March 2014 www.well.blogs.nytimes.com

Quebec woman's 'phanton' pregnancy fools her own boyfriend

A Quebec woman had her entire town believing she was pregnant and expecting quintuplets, convincing many to open their hearts -- and wallets -- to help her. Problem was, not only were there no quintuplets, there was no pregnancy at all. The woman had told her boyfriend she was pregnant about a month after they met on an online dating site. At first, she said she was expecting twins. Then it changed to triplets and then quadruplets. The community of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu rallied around the expectant couple and the expecting father created a Facebook page to keep family and community members up to date. Geneviève Laflamme, a mother of triplets herself, befriended the future mother. “I gave her tips on how to handle it, where to get financial support, where to get sponsors for diapers,” she told CTV Montreal. Laflamme says she began to suspect something wasn’t right when she noticed holes in the woman’s story. Then, a week before the woman’s purported due date, she told Laflamme she had undergone another ultrasound that revealed there were actually five babies inside her. Laflamme didn't buy it. But Facebook followers of the mother showered the couple with gifts and offers of help. The whole story fell apart Tuesday when the woman's boyfriend took her to hospital for her delivery at 34 weeks. A nurse took Paul aside and informed him his girlfriend was not pregnant at all and had either faked or imagined the whole thing. The woman is currently undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, which is why CTV News has decided not to identify her. Medical specialists say “phantom pregnancies” are not unheard of. Dr. Haim Abenhaim, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, says there are two types of so-called phantom pregnancies documented in medical literature. One is called pseudocyesis, which occurs when there are physical pregnancy signs, such as missed periods, morning sickness and extension of the abdomen, but no actual pregnancy. The other condition is called delusional pregnancy in which a patient truly believes she is pregnant but is not. A posting on the couple’s Facebook page Wednesday explains that Paul is now determined to return all the gifts the couple received and will donate other items to local charities. The post says that Paul has cut off ties with the woman and is devastated by the events of the last week. “Not only has he lost someone he had fallen in love with, but also four babies who had becomes his ‘joie de vivre’,” the post reads in French. Article: 21st March 2014 www.ctvnews.ca

Mums through surrogacy not entitled to maternity leave under EU law

Yesterday, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that women who become mothers via surrogacy do not have an automatic right to maternity leave under EU law. Going on, however, the court stressed that member states are free to provide maternity leave of their own accord. The Court of Justice of the European Union CJEUA hospital employee in the United Kingdom and a teacher in Ireland were unable to bear children. They both had children using surrogate mothers, in line with British and Irish law. Both surrogacies were declared legal by national authorities. EU law guarantees minimum protection standards at work to women who are pregnant, were pregnant, or are breastfeeding. It also allows, but does not insist that member states to provide leave to workers who adopt children. However, in yesterday’s preliminary ruling, the EU Court of Justice established that neither mother was pregnant, nor legally adopted the children since the parenthood was already established at birth. The court also ruled that there was no discrimination on the ground of sex, which is also forbidden under EU law. Commenting the ruling, Raül Romeva i Rueda MEP, Vice-President of the Intergroup on LGBT Rights and member of the Employment Committee, said: “The court is technically right, since neither woman was pregnant or adopted her child. EU law is clear that minimum standards of protection apply to those women only. “But yesterday’s ruling points to a clear gap in EU law, especially for those parents who do not conform to traditional family models. We’ll have to bear this in mind when next discussing employment and maternity laws.” Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP, Vice-President of the LGBT Intergroup and member of the Committee on Women’s Rights, added: “Women’s rights are not up for discussion. Regardless of national laws on surrogacy, if these surrogacies took place legally, Great Britain and Ireland should ensure that a new mother can spend time with her child. This is common sense, but not common law yet. We ought to work in that direction.” Article: 19th March 2014 www.pinknews.co.uk

Celebrities are giving the wrong impression about Fertility over 40

Many people believe it is usual and easy to become pregnant in their forties, says Louise Johnson, a spokeswoman for a coalition of health and science groups. They want to get the message across that a woman's fertility starts to decline in her early thirties. A 40-year-old woman has five per cent chance of conceiving in any given month, says Ms Johnson. Media stories about miracle babies born to older celebrities often neglect to mention the use of donor eggs, she says. This has contributed to the misconception that IVF will help couples have a baby at any age. However, for every IVF cycle in Australia in 2011, fewer than seven per cent of women aged 40 to 44 who were using their own eggs had a baby. For women over 45 the success rate was below two per cent. A study by the coalition shows 80 per cent of Australians do not know a woman's fertility declines before the age of 35. The study also shows a large proportion of people think the decline starts at 40 or that age does not affect fertility. There is also a lack of understanding that male fertility also declines with age. People in higher socio-economic circumstances are more likely to have the wrong idea than those in lower socio-economic circumstances, says Ms Johnson. "We want people to know the facts so they can make informed choices." "There is a belief that if you are healthy you fertility will be fine. But sadly health does not trump age." Bringing plans for a family one or two years forward can make all the difference. It's basic biology, she says. But the focus at school is about birth control and avoiding infections. Less attention is paid to fertility. Article: 17th March www.news.ninemsn.com.au

Gay and lesbian couples can now legally marry in England and Wales

Gay and lesbian couples who married overseas are now recognised as married in England and Wales. The bulk of same-sex marriage legislation came into effect at midnight, meaning couples who have entered into same-sex marriages overseas are now recognised as married. Before the 13th March, same-sex couples who got married overseas had their marriages treated as a civil partnership in England and Wales, but the Equalities office says from today “they will instead be recognised as being married”. Unwed couples still have to wait until March 29 before getting married, as new marriages require a 16 day notice period, but they can now declare their intent to marry. However, couples who have already entered into civil partnerships in the UK have to wait until later this year before they can convert them to marriages. Christopher and Andrew Bannister Bailey, who married in New York in 2012, are thrilled to have their marriage recognised for what it is. They said: “We are super happy this evening, and feel under prepared champagne-wise. One of the reasons we married in NYC was the terminology. “We are actually heading back to New York this week, primarily for work but we also have a weekend to ourselves where I am sure we will be celebrating all over again!” Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger, who married in Canada in 2003, fought a long battle to get to where they are tonight. Wilkinson, a social sciences professor at Loughborough University, told the Northern Echo yesterday: “I think for me it is disbelief more than anything else. “Its kind of suddenly crept up on us from nowhere, only eight years after we lost a court case to declare our marriage legal in this country. But now it will be legal in this country and that’s pretty stunning.” Kitzinger told Buzzfeed: “It’s like being turned into a pumpkin on the stroke of midnight!” “We’re going away to a hotel, having a nice meal and then at midnight we’ll be wife and wife again!” From today, same-sex couples where one or both of the partners is terminally ill can also begin to marry. Article: 15th March 2014 www.pinknews.co.uk

RagBag Theatre Company Project - Have your views heard!

Do you want to challenge the way the community of Southend views the idea of family? The traditional family is no longer the norm. We all have an opinion about this. As a member of the LGBT Community this project could be an opportunity for you to have your voice heard. With us, you could devise and perform a play in the Clifftown Theatre, Southend. The project will be 10 weeks. There will be two rehearsals each week which are likely to take place Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons culminating in a performance in the Clifftown Theatre for the local community, friends and family. You will not have to audition to take part and no previous acting experience is required. All ages and experience are welcome. As a company you will learn new skills, meet others from the community and get to have your opinion reflected in the play. The play will be devised with inspiration from your ideas and thoughts and you will be performing with us in June. We are having taster workshops on Saturday 15th 2-4 and Thursday 20th 6:30-8 in the Clifftown Theatre Southend. Children and young people are most welcome at the sessions. The sessions are ‘drop in’ so you can stay for 5 minutes or 50! The entire project is completely FREE! Can't make the taster session? No problem, just contact us as you are still more than welcome to take part in the project which starts April 3rd. Interested in the project? Contact us on ragbagtheatre@gmail.com Or call or text us on 07786411649 Hope to see you soon. The RagBag Theatre Company Article: 13th March 2013 RagBag Theatre Company

Women who have a low birth weight may suffer fertility problems

Girls born with a low birth weight may be at increased risk for fertility problems as adults, a new study from Sweden suggests. Researchers looked at women who were seeking fertility treatment whether it was because they were infertile or their partner was and found women who were infertile themselves were about twice as likely to have been born with a low birth weight (less than 5.5 pounds) compared with those who were seeking fertility treatment because their husband/partner was infertile, or because the couple's infertility was unexplained. The findings held true even after the researchers took into account factors that might affect women's fertility, including their body mass index (BMI) and whether they had given birth before. [5 Myths About Fertility Treatments] However, because the study was small, and the first of its kind, more research is needed to confirm the link, the researchers said. And because the study was conducted in Sweden, it's not clear whether the results apply to women in other countries, they said. An earlier study found that women who weighed less than 3.3 pounds at birth were less likely to give birth in their mid-20s than those with a higher birth weight, but that study did not look at whether the women had been diagnosed with fertility problems. The new study analyzed information from more than 1,200 heterosexual women (most in their 20s and 30s) who sought fertility treatment along with their partners between 2005 and 2010. About 38 percent of these couples had fertility problems attributed to the woman, about 27 percent had fertility problems attributed to the man, about 7 percent had fertility problems in both the man and the woman, and 28 percent had fertility problems that were unexplained. About 3 percent of the women were born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy), and 3.6 percent weighed less than 5.5 pounds at birth. The reason for the link between birth weight and fertility is not known, but one possibility is that growth restriction in the womb may affect the function of reproductive organs later in life, the researchers said. Previous studies have linked fetal growth restriction to a reduced ovulation rate. Article: 11th March 2014 www.foxnews.com

Widow wins the right to use her dead husbands sperm

A young widow has won a High Court fight to preserve her dead husband's sperm. Beth Warren, 28, challenged a storage time limit imposed by the UK fertility regulator claiming that her grief had left her unready to start a family alone. The physiotherapist said the limit meant she had little over a year to conceive using sperm her husband Warren Brewer had placed in storage before he died of a brain tumour two years ago, aged 32. Mrs Warren, who uses her late husband's first name as her surname, asked a High Court judge to decide whether the sperm could stay in storage for a longer period. Judge Mrs Justice Hogg, who heard evidence at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London in January, ruled in her favour. Mrs Warren, from Birmingham, gasped when the judge announced her decision and said after the hearing that she was “every good word in the dictionary”. The couple had been together for eight years and married in December 2011, six weeks before Mr Brewer died. Sperm and eggs can be stored for decades, but only if the donor gives consent every few years. As this was not possible in Mr Brewer’s case it was due to be destroyed. A lawyer representing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) told the judge that officials sympathised with Mrs Warren. But Jane Collier said Mr Brewer, a ski instructor, had not given written consent to his sperm being stored beyond April 2015. A lawyer representing Mrs Warren told the judge that the authority was taking an "excessively linguistic and technical approach" and suggested that every option had not been made clear to Mr Brewer. Jenni Richards QC said Mr Brewer wanted to ensure that his sperm could be used by his wife after his death and had made his intentions clear. After the hearing Mrs Warren said: "I am elated. Every good word in the dictionary. I hadn't dared to let myself believe it would happen." Article: 6th March 2014 www.telegraph.co.uk

Breastfeeding Project | educating men about the importance of breastfeeding

In an effort to educate men about breastfeeding - and all the nipple guards, latching problems and mastitis that come with it - a new advertising campaign is using gender-bending images to get their attention. The ad images show shirtless men clutching an infant to their breast, much like a nursing mother would. And the message is loud and clear: 'Project Breastfeeding. If I Could, I Would.' Hector Cruz, a father-of-two and the founder of Project Breastfeeding, told MailOnline: 'My goal is getting dads involved. When it comes to breastfeeding we think its none of our business, so we think that it's not our duty - but that's so not true.' 'A father can make or break a breastfeeding relationship between child and mother. If he's not going to support her, it's likely shes going to give up,' Mr Cruz explained, adding: 'But there's no resources [about breastfeeding] for men. 'So I wanted to give dads a voice. Dads' roles have been so dumped down in the last 50 years. I want to let them know they play a crucial and vital role in the breastfeeding relationship between mom and baby.' After Mr Cruz's wife, Nicole, gave birth to their daughter Sophia in October 2013 via C-section, she struggled with breastfeeding, and Mr Cruz, who realized that most of the information about breastfeeding targets mothers, struggled to understand how he could help. 'My wife would cry herself to sleep at night and I just didn't know what to do,' recalled Mr Cruz. 'I wasn't allowed to go to her breastfeeding class at Gateway Hospital in Clarksville, Tennessee, where my daughter was born, because god forbid if I saw another woman's breast. 'So I had no idea what to do, I had no idea how I could help her.' Read more ...

US gay marriage and adoption trial tries to overturn ban

Detroit — Testimony continued Wednesday in the federal trial on a lawsuit seeking to overturn Michigan’s bans on adoption for same-sex couples and gay marriage. This week, attorneys for the state of Michigan, defending the state’s bans on same-sex adoption and marriage presented testimony from their experts who so far have maintained that children raised by heterosexual parents experienced better outcomes. The lawsuit was brought by plaintiffs April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, two nurses from Hazel Park who hope to adopt each other’s adoptive children and legally marry. Testifying Wednesday, Louisiana State University family studies professor Loren Marks, criticized a 2005 American Psychological Association study that found there was no difference in the outcomes of children raised by heterosexual or gay and lesbian parents. That study has been cited by witnesses for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit brought by DeBoer and Rowse. Marks denounced the APA’s stance on same-sex families, saying the research it based the policy on was not complete and in some instances flawed. Marks said he analyzed the 59 cases the APA studied before taking its position. “I was struck by the strength of the language used in the claims,” said Marks, who published his analysis in the Social Science Research journal two years ago. “Not a single study seemed strong to me. I found the language strong and lacking caveat.” Marks said the studies lacked racial diversity and did not include enough gay men. He said the sample size was too small. Experts for the plaintiffs, such as Stanford University Michael Rosenfeld, have testified that children raised in same-sex couple households do just as well as children raised in other households. Testimony is expected to wrap up Thursday and closing arguments are expected to be done Friday. Article: 5th March 2014 www.detroitnews.com

Pride Angel Journey | Born yesterday

I swallowed two paracetamol tablets in a vain attempt to shift the heavy pain that had settled across my right eye, and shuffled, bleary-eyed, into the lounge of the birth centre, where I found Sally holding our baby. After sleeping through the visits of her six grandparents the previous day, at 8pm little Luna (I was still using her "womb name") decided it was time for a drink - and had pretty much sucked for the next 14 hours. I had spent the night lying next to her, blinking away exhaustion and periodically setting her in her cot, only to see her eyes open, face turn side to side rooting for milk and arms and legs wave a distress signal. It was now midday and time for our baby, now almost 36 hours old, to go home. After our nocturnal marathon, there seemed no doubt that the breastfeeding was pretty much sorted; we'd managed a nappy change without getting tarry meconium in too many places and we'd learnt a couple of tips on sizing: that 'New Baby' nappies actually come in 4 sizes and you need the smallest ones at first, that the '0' in '0-3' should more accurately read ¾-3 (at least for smaller babies) and that the tiny clothes labelled 'Newborn' are not 'pointless'. So after packing our belongings, we carefully followed the instruction leaflet to get Luna settled into the stretchy wrap sling on my chest and headed out into the May sunshine. The next few days were a haze of milk and lavender baths, pint glass after pint glass of water and squash, mountains of cards and gifts arriving with the postman and the endless hours of feeding: in the daytime when Sally would bring me drinks and nutritious meals that my baby-fuzzy brain could not have worked out how to prepare; in the nighttime when I'd sit in the rocking chair, my lap a little overcrowded when the cat joined us as well. And the Catch-22: the virtuous circle of feed/sleep/feed/sleep which became a vicious cycle of feed/nappy change/feed/nappy change in our quest for a clean bottom. Despite the fuzzy brain, and the nights of feeding though, in those first two weeks, it was all going quite nicely for us. I'd been terrified about the prospect of caring for a screaming bundle of chaos. But little Luna (perhaps we'll stick with the womb name for now) seemingly perfectly content living at home with her two mummies, just wanted to drink and sleep - no screaming, no chaos. And then came Week 3... Article: by Lindsey, West Yorkshire 9th February 2013

How to increase fertility and prevent miscarriage

Over the past twenty years, fertility problems have increased dramatically. One in six couples now find it difficult to conceive and a quarter of all pregnancies can end in a miscarriage and more and more couples are turning to fertility treatments to help them have a family.What is the cause? What is the cause? From a medical point of view, infertility is believed to be caused by the following factors, and in these proportions. Problem Percentage of cases: Ovulatory failure (including Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) 20 Tubal damage 15 Endometriosis 5 Male problems 26 Unexplained 30 If the mathematics don’t add up, it’s because many couples experience more than one problem when trying to conceive: for example, you may suffer from endometriosis, but your partner may also have a low sperm count. Interestingly, the most common cause of infertility is ‘unexplained’, which means that following thorough investigations, doctors can find no specific or identifiable medical problem at the root. But this is where a natural approach can come into play. If a couple fails to become pregnant, there is obviously something causing the problem. It’s no good labelling infertility ‘unexplained’. The answer is to look deeper – at lifestyle factors, nutritional deficiencies and even emotional elements. Back to the topWhat are your choices?The natural approach to fertility is and has been enormously successful, largely because fertility is multi-factorial, meaning that there are many, many elements that can be at the root of your fertility problems. A study conducted by the University of Surrey showed that couples with a previous history of infertility who made changes in their lifestyle, diet and took nutritional supplements had an 80 percent success rate Given that the success rate for IVF is around 25 per cent, it’s worth considering these options.Natural treatment plans are, by their nature, extensive and really do need to be adjusted to suit your individual needs. I will, however, go through the most important points below. Remember that it takes at least three months for immature eggs (oocytes) to mature enough to be released during ovulation. It also takes at least three months for sperm cells to develop, ready to be ejaculated. This means that when you are trying to improve your fertility, you need to have a three-month period before conceiving. This is called ‘pre-conception care’ and it’s as important to take as much care during this period as it is during a pregnancy itself. If you are going for IVF treatment or another assisted conception procedure, you should follow the recommendations listed below in order to increase the chances that the procedure will work. Diet Both you and your partner should follow the dietary recommendations explained in the Nutrition Section (The Foundation of Health) Although it goes without saying that a healthy diet is crucial to a successful pregnancy and a healthy baby, many people are unaware of the fact that diet can help to correct hormone imbalances that may affect your ability to conceive. There are also certain foods and drinks that are known to lower fertility. Other factors which affect fertility include alcohol, smoking, caffeine and Xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens are essentially environmental oestrogens, coming from pesticides and the plastic industry. When you are trying to conceive, one of the most important things you need to do is to balance your hormones. It is extremely important to avoid anything that might cause an imbalance. Read more... Article: www.marilynglenville.com 1st March 2014